Sportsmen propose deer solution to N.J.'s hunger problems

RED BANK – A meal fit for a king was served on a pauper’s table, like the flavor of luxury in the humble setting of a soup kitchen.

It certainly wasn’t normal soup kitchen fare being served at The Lunch Break community center Tuesday afternoon – it was venison.

“We have good food every day here, but to this caliber very rarely,” said Gwendolyn Love, Lunch Break executive director. “We’re ecstatic to be part of this.”

Executive chef Scott Leysath, who hosts the Sportsman Channel show “Dead Meat,” said game and fish can help supplement food offerings in communities with a growing hunger problem.

“It is really an untapped resource,” Leysath said. “Game meat and fish are a healthy, sustainable, renewable resource. Deer graze naturally, so there are no hormones, steroids or antibiotics”

Love said there is evidence that the Jersey Shore has a growing problem with hunger – in 2008, The Lunch Break’s first year, it served 33,072 people. Last year that number had frown to 56,487.

“It’s grown for a combination of reasons,” Love said. “For one thing, as we progressed, more people found out about us and they started coming here for meals, but on the other hand, the economy is not where it should be, and all these part-time, minimum wage jobs don’t help. People need good-paying, full-time jobs.”

Leysath made venison tacos with baked beans for drop-ins, volunteers and his crew - Tuesday’s lunch served over 175 people.

“It is very lean, healthy meat,” Leysath said. “There are parts of our country where we need to shoot deer due to overpopulation, our homes are on the land that they once lived in. If we don’t harvest the deer population, they can die of disease, be hit by cars or face starvation.”

Deer meat is a versatile ingredient, Leysath said.

“Anything you can do with pork, you can do with venison,” Leysath said. “It’s like stew meat without the fat.”

The meal was offered by The Sportsman Channel as part of its Hunt.Fish.Feed outreach, a program that takes donated game meat and fish from sportsmen and serves it at homeless shelters.

“We’ve fed over 20,000 people so far,” Sportsman Channel spokeswoman Molly Mcfarland said. “We usually use venison, it is really an underutilized protein.”

The Sportsman Channel hosts Hunt.Fish.Feed meals throughout the country, Comcast spokeswoman Kim Smith said. The local cable provider has partnered with the network to offer the lunches in New Jersey.

“It is really about getting the most out of the resources at our disposal,” Smith said. “Venison and game meat are a food resource that many of us don’t think about.”

Over 50 pounds of venison was donated by the non-profit wildlife conservation Mule Deer Foundation.

“A lot of things like this go on but you would never even know about it,” Love said. “There are people helping people, it happens every day, Sportsman Comcast are another representation of that.”